CERIOHS

CERIOHS is about having fun. It’s about finding our way back to a child’s innocence – when we told the truth, shared our toys, and trusted each other automatically.

Does it make you laugh or cringe? You know, someone once admonished me about using the word rectum when working with youth. As if that’s the worst word youth will ever hear, right?

The truth is, your reaction says an awful lot about you. People who laugh at Cranium Ex Rectum get it – it’s funny and we’re supposed to laugh at ourselves. People upset by the phrase are most in need of learning its value. The more upset you get, the more you need to chill out and take life a little less seriously.

What It Really Means

What does it mean – Cranium Ex Rectum? Yea, sure, there’s the crass version we’ve all heard yelled or said in anger. Well, cranium ex rectum means the same thing literally, but it’s a lot funnier (and milder) in the Latin. You have to think about it a little to get it.

But the meaning is a little deeper, too. We often think of the cranium and the head being the same, but they’re slightly different. The cranium is really just the part of the skull enclosing the brain. Cranium Ex Rectum is about getting your brain unstuck from bad thought habits.

Rectum, on the other end, is the final section of the large intestine. Your arse is the big fleshy muscles of your bum. Your anus is the strong muscle that holds everything closed. And the rectum is the last place poop gathers before being pushed out of your body.

And if you know anything about me, you know I’m big on PEP versus POOP. So it really strikes me as appropriate – Cranium Ex Rectum – get your brain free of the POOP in your life.

CERIOHS – Cranium Ex Rectum Institute of Happiness Studies is about replacing the personally obstructive, offensive practices (POOP) we so often use with personal empowerment practices (PEP). CERIOHS combines self-image engineering, personal responsibility, community accountability, and active listening.

About Cranium Ex Rectum Daily Dose

Everybody gets by with a little help from their friends, right? So let this video series be your daily dose of reality check, stern parenting, and friendship.

Each dose uses a quote from somebody in history. It might be Shakespeare, a proverb, Winston Churchill, or a poet. Whoever said it, the quote is something you’ve probably heard more than once in daily life.

Some of the quotes are good advice. “Live with passion,” is a good example. Other quotes are pure poppycock. For example, “It’s always darkest before the dawn” was clearly written by someone who has never seen a sunrise. Whatever the quote, you get my take on its value and how to use it in your life.

The podcast title can make you think it’s a very in-your-face sort of program. Sometimes it is, but it’s mostly an opportunity to check in, clear your thinking, and get ready for the day. I’m honest, but I’m no ogre.

About PEP and POOP

PEP and POOP are more about attitude than specific actions.

Personal Empowerment Practices Personally Offensive, Obstructive Practices
Honesty Lying
Trusting Blaming
Consistency Changeability
Caring Criticizing
Accepting Punishing
Listening Complaining
Encouraging Nagging
Supporting Bribing
Negotiating Threatening

Physical Touch  Self-isolation
Healthy Eating  Poor Eating Choices
Using Skin Lotion   Ignoring Your Skin

Ask someone whether they want more PEP in their life or more POOP. Everyone says they want more PEP, but they often fill their life with POOP. It’s mostly because that’s what they’ve learned. Teachers, employers, parents, and celebrities pretty much shove POOP down our throats. It’s no surprise that’s what we do with our lives.

PEP or POOP is about spotting the often subtle differences between the two types of habit. We also talk about how to move toward PEP so we gain the benefits along with everyone around us.

It’s important to know there are very few hard lines between right and wrong in this podcast. Yes, there is a hard line between honesty and lying, but that’s about the only one. For example, it’s easy to say you should never threaten anyone. Well, yes, negotiating is a better option, but Scared Straight programs work because sometimes people need to be woken up by seeing the threat of real consequences to their actions.

The Key is Choosing

The key is in choosing which are your preferred go-to practices. The key to a beautiful rose garden is consistency, caring, supporting, and encouraging the plants to grow straight and true. But even rose gardens need POOP on occasion (horse manure) to keep them beautiful.

People thrive on honesty, consistency, and encouragement. We all want someone to listen, accept us, and care. But sometimes, when we get a little off course, we might need someone to complain about our behaviour, criticize our choices, or even punish us for doing something wrong.

Perhaps even more important is learning to recognise when we slide over the line from encouraging to nagging. Spotting that change takes a real effort at listening. It’s the same with supporting and rewarding. It’s easy to know when you’re rewarding someone for doing what you told them to do. But what happens when your genuine desire to support someone slides into directing their behaviour because they’re doing what gets them a reward?

Life is nowhere near as easy as driving down a highway. There are no painted lines to show our lane, or even a stone shoulder to get our attention when we’re off track. The gurus say life is not a practice run; you only get one shot at life. Well, they’re right that we only get one shot at living life. But life is all about practicing. It’s great when we get it right straight away, but the whole point of living another day is to practice getting it right. We just have to choose the right things to practice, at the right time, with the right people.

About the Getting Happy Book Series

Who needs a whole series of books about getting happy, right? There are already lots of books about happiness and getting happy. Who needs a whole series?

Those are good points and questions. I asked them, too, when I started thinking about a book series. Who is ever going to want to read a whole series of books? But then, that’s the point, isn’t it? No one is going to read the whole series. Everyone is going to read the book that speaks to their need.

The questions got me thinking about Jack Canfield and his Chicken Soup series. It also got me thinking about a friend who knows more about marketing than anyone I’ve ever met: Dan Kennedy.

Jack started with Chicken Soup For The Soul. When that book was successful, he started writing more titles with a niche focus. That got me thinking about something Dan once said about people asking questions. He said it made no difference how many examples he gave while speaking. People still came up to him afterward asking how to make his advice work for their specific situation.

This is the reason for the series. Yes, everyone wants to get happy, but they all have different situations. No one just wants to get happy. People want to get happy as a university freshman, going into marriage, after someone dies, or when their marriage gets boring.

It’s funny. We’re all generally happy until we get a burr under our saddle. Then we start looking for a way to get happy, but what we really want is a way to deal with the burr under our saddle. This is why it’s a book series. And it’s why every book comes with a free digital workbook.

Reading a book about how someone in our situation got happy is good. It gives us ideas and gets us thinking. Sometimes, what we can really use is a guide to making changes in our life so we know getting happy is more than a temporary fix.